FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
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AVIATION MEDICINE REPORTS

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-92/23

Title and Subtitle: The Identification and Quantitation of Triamtereme in Blood and Urine From a Fatal Aircraft Accident

Report Date: July 1992

Authors: White, V., Canfield, D.V. and Hordinsky, J.R.

Abstract: Triamterene, a diuretic drug used in combination with other drugs for the treatment of hypertension, was found in the blood and urine of a fatal aircraft accident victim. The extraction and identification of triamterene is difficult. It exhibits poor extraction efficiency using some standard base extraction procedures and the parent drug is unsuitable for analysis using gas chromatography. In this case a thin layer chromatography solvent system and high performance liquid chromatography were used to identify and quantitate triamterene in blood and urine. Triamterene is a strong absorber in the ultraviolet region and has an unusual UV spectrum, which simplifies the identification and quantitation of this substance by High Performance Liquid Chromatography.

Key Words: Triamterene, HPLC, TLC, Extraction

No. of Pages: 7